So our class of train travel has got progressively better since starting out in China that first overnight train on a hard seat to hard sleeper non AC then hard sleeper with AC then to the mother of all sleepers the soft sleeper train with AC - this only has 4 berths in it and a door you can close to keep out noise and bored children so finally we had a good sleep on a train in China and arrived in Beijing finally 3 hours late. We headed for the taxi queue - typical the queue was massive and no sign of any taxis :-( a Chinese guy walks past and says to us that we will get a taxi outside the station - he speaks again then we realise he is from Glasgow of all places - wasnt expecting that - anyway he took us out of the station and found us a non dodgy taxi, spoke to the driver in Chinese for us and we got to the hostel drama free.

Beijing is HUGE with an official population of 15 million but according to our hostel it has an estimated 22 million people !

! Beijing and its urban areas are the size of Belgium so that gives you an idea of the size of the place.

We have only 2 nights and three full days in Beijing and same in Shanghai due to the extra days we had to spend in places due to the limited availability of train tickets so its gonna be a tiring week of non stop sightseeing!!

Forbidden CitySo after a much needed shower we head out to the Forbidden City - Lonely Planet says give yourself a day for this.....we have 4 hours !! Well if you have watched the new Karate Kid movie he enters the place to kung fu fighters and this vast amazing space. We enter to thousands of Chinese tour groups and chaos haha. Needless to say we walked around for a bit the heat was stifling it was sooooo hot n humid then headed back out - the place is amazing and the buildings are stunning but manoeuvring the tour groups was tiring and hard work in the heat !

We headed for dinner, of course it had to be Peking Duck we were in Beijing after all so we splashed out and had a lovely feast of duck.

Back to the hostel to shower and out again - we booked a King Fu show at the Red Theatre - it was amazing, great production with guys laying on nails, swords and showing their skills with all sorts of weapons - it had a nice wee story to it too and all in English

Back to the hostel for a beer and some much needed sleep - I am rudely awoken by the rustling of a carrier bag - agggggggg I was sooo tired I just wanted to sleep - I switched on the light but saw nothing - eventually Marc woke up from my shuffling about kicking bags - waking a sleeping Marc is never advisable lol but he got up and chased a wee mouse out of the carrier bag with my cakes in it - MY HERO hehe - finally got back to my much needed sleep - we are up at 6.30am tomorrow to head to the great wall.